


Dinner & Conversation

by epersonae



Series: Aftermath [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Background blupjeans - Freeform, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 09:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11506974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: After the apocalypse, Lucretia visits Taako.





	Dinner & Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> From a Tumblr prompt.

Lucretia hesitated at the front door for so long that it opened before she even had a chance to knock.

“Oh. It’s _you_.” Lup’s eyes swept over her in a long calculated look before she called back into the house. “Bar, honey, it’s time to go. She’s here.”

Barry came to the door then and took Lup’s arm, giving Lucretia the briefest of glances. Disapproval? Disappointment? At the best of times she’d found him a difficult read, but now she had no idea whatsoever.

“Ma’am! You’re here!” And Angus McDonald rushed forward to throw his arms around her. She hugged him back, flooded with gratitude for his enthusiasm.

“It’s good to see you too,” she said.

“C’mon, half-pint,” said Lup, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Remember what I said? You can visit with her another time.” Angus’s face scrunched up into that look, the one where he really wanted to explain that he wasn’t _that_ young, but he seemed to think better of it, and just shrugged at Lucretia. She tousled his hair.

“Until next time, then.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Then all three left together, leaving Lucretia alone in the front hall. She’d never spent any longer there than was strictly necessary to pick up Angus for a visit, so it was intriguing to look at the place that the twins and Barry (and sometimes Kravitz, if she understood Angus correctly) had made for themselves. The contents of the bookshelves obviously belonged to Angus and Barry: a mix of kid’s detective novels and enormous scientific and arcane tomes. Everything else was Taako and Lup: brightly colored mismatched art and tapestries everywhere.

After spending a few minutes putting off the inevitable, she finally called out, “Taako?”

“In the kitchen, come on back.”

He was chopping vegetables -- a salad, by the looks of it.

“Here, take over this while I do the vinaigrette.” He handed her a knife, without really looking at her. She kept her eyes on the radishes and carrots while he pulled bottles down from the shelves. They worked together in silence -- simultaneously awkward and familiar -- until a bell rang.

“Hachi machi, the lasagna’s done!” A mage hand opened the oven and set the pan to cool.

“Oh, that’s quite a lot,” she said.

“Yes, it _turns out_ that I’m incapable of making food for any less than six people. Who would have guessed?”

“Taako…”

But he threw up a hand.

“Nope. Food first, confessions or apologies or whatevs after.”

With a cool, almost disdainful silence he dished up the food, set the table, and poured two enormous glasses of red wine. He waved for her to sit, and they both began to eat.

“This is delicious,” she said, and of course it was.

He still didn’t say anything, just picked at the edges of his pasta and stared at her.

She set down her fork and stared back at him.

“Taako, why did you invite me here?”

His eyes were still daggers, but then he looked down at his salad, moving it around with his fork.

“The boy, mostly. He’s...that little mug is stupid fond of you. Merle keeps bugging me, and fuck. I’ve got my dad, I guess, and my kid, they forgave you?” He pushes the plate away. “What the fuck, Lucy?” When he said the old nickname, there was something awful in his expression, as if his mouth made the shape without his brain being totally in control of it.

“I told you,” she said. “I didn’t mean for it to be that long. I was trying to…”

“Was that _before_ or _after_ you were in thrall to that fucking staff, _Madame Director_?”

She rubbed her face with her hand, then pushed her own plate away before taking a huge gulp of wine.

“You’re right. It was stupid.”

“If you had said a single word. Gods, you know Mags would have--” He looked up at the ceiling and laughed. “That dumb fuck would’ve probably helped you _somehow_. Shit, Lucretia.” He looked at her now, and his eyes were rimmed with red. His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “If any of us at any point in those two fucking years had just said something plain instead of…” He waved his hands dismissively.

“I know,” she said.

“Cool, cool, cool, seven idiots almost destroy the universe because they can’t have a conversation like damned adults.”

She looked down at her hands.

“I missed you,” she said.

He rolled his eyes.

“You missed me. You destroyed my memories, took away my sister, made me into a fool and an idiot, and _you_ missed _me_.”

She winced.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.” His tone softened. “I think I missed you too, in that way where I didn’t know to miss anything.”

“Can you ever…” She took another drink of wine, and shook her head, unable to finish the sentence.

“Eat your lasagna,” he said, not unkindly. “Maybe we’ll talk about forgiveness another time.”

**Author's Note:**

> So writing that conversation felt like peeling off my own skin, plus it's my first ever attempt at post-canon. Whew.


End file.
